Seems that undeleted information stored on discarded computers, mobile phones and other electronic devices has a habit of re-surfacing and biting its previous owner in the backside, especially if that owner is the U.S. military. The U.S. Defense Department now has to figure out how a an MP3 player containing 60 Army files that included the names and details of American soldiers found its way to an Oklahoma pawn shop, New Zealand broadcaster TVNZ reported this week.

A 29-year-old native New Zealander bought the player for $18 and found that it contained lists of soldiers based in Afghanistan, those who have fought in Iraq, and cell phone numbers for soldiers based there and at other U.S. posts overseas, TVNZ reported. The station said that neither the U.S. Army nor the American embassy in New Zealand would comment on the situation.

Complaints of memory and concentration problems, headaches, pain and fatigue among Gulf War vets have often fallen on deaf ears – until now. A Department of Veterans Affairs advisory panel has concluded that Gulf War syndrome is a real illness affecting at least 174,000 soldiers, a quarter of those who served in the 1991 Persian Gulf conflict.

“The extensive body of scientific research now available consistently indicates that Gulf War illness is real, that it is the result of neurotoxic exposures during Gulf War deployment, and that few veterans [suffering from it] have recovered or substantially improved with time,” says a report by the Research Advisory Committee on Gulf War Veterans’ Illnesses released yesterday.

Military bases appear to be a popular haunt for wandering spirits, with several attracting the attention of ghost hunters seeking evidence of paranormal activity.

The Atlantic Paranormal Society (TAPS) in January checked out reports of unexplained phenomena—mysterious footsteps, voices and apparitions—in three buildings at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in Ohio for the Sci Fi Channel show Ghost Hunters. Some base personnel have reported seeing the ghost of a blond-haired boy in building 219; others claim to have spotted the apparition of an elderly woman in building 70.

Sixty years ago, the Raytheon Company gave us the first microwave oven. Today, the company, perhaps better known for its missiles, is looking to sell the U.S. military a microwave-based weapon they say will help soldiers control crowds without the risk of seriously injuring anyone.

Raytheon calls its Active Denial System (ADS) technology a "revolutionary non-lethal protection system that employs millimeter wave technology to repel individuals without causing injury." Here’s how it works: Active Denial emits a focused beam of wave energy that travels at the speed of light, heating the water in a person's outer layers of skin and producing an "intolerable heating sensation that causes targeted individuals to flee." Translation: You feel intense pain, but you don’t get hurt, according to Raytheon, which claims that tests show the effects can reach through cracks in and around concrete walls and even through the glass of automobiles.

Concrete and steel are the materials of choice when building buildings and vehicles that will protect soldiers from enemy fire. But a group of Norwegian researchers are testing another option: lightweight aluminum panels that can be filled with densely packed dirt, gravel, sand or any other nearby substance to provide protection without adding a lot of weight to a military's vehicles or structures, according to a recent report in the Norwegian research magazine Gemini. The aluminum panels are designed to fit together and any substance used to fill the cavity could be emptied out of the bottom of the panel before it is moved.

The Norwegian University of Science and Technology's SIMLab (Structural Impact Laboratory) also searching for a substance that can absorb the pressure exerted on the underside of a tank by a landmine explosion without adding a lot of weight to the vehicle. One proposed option is developing plates made from aluminum foam, which could absorb the impact of a bullet or piece of shrapnel and keep it from shredding the soldier on the other side of the armor. Such foam, basically a porous version of aluminum, is being developed by a number of companies, including Alcoa, Inc. in Alcoa Center, Pa., and Toronto's Cymat Technologies Ltd. and would be nonflammable and recyclable.